Apoptolidin is a 20-membered macrolide that selectively induces apoptosis in certain cancer cell lines. Apoptosis is an important mechanism in the treatment of cancer and consequently, agents that can selectively induce apoptosis in cancer cells have great therapeutic use. The success of apoptolidin as a potentially powerful anti-cancer agent is demonstrated by the molecule's status as among the top 0.1% most selective cytotoxic agents of 37,000 compounds tested by the National Cancer Institute on 60 human cancer cell lines (NCI 60).
